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There is a lot of talk about blockchain, but few have understood what it is for. Yet finance is coming out of it revolutionized. With it, bank deposits, business transactions, notarial acts. We got help from an expert, Angelica Finatti, sales and marketing director of Fideiussioni Digitali, a spin-off of Cetif Advisory, where she leads the expansion of digital solutions for banking and insurance. We tried to translate it into simple words, because this technology is changing the world of credit, buying and selling, based on the concept of "trust" certified by a network in which it is always possible to see any change.
Let's start with surety bonds. This is an instrument that provides a financial guarantee, often through a bank or insurance company, to ensure the performance of an obligation by another person or company. Basically, if the principal debtor fails to pay, the guarantor (surety) takes over the debt. Why is Blockchain becoming critical? In this regard, it is useful to talk about notarization. "It means registering a document uniquely and immutably on a shared network, precisely, the blockchain. Once entered, that document can no longer be fraudulently altered or duplicated. To make a comparison, imagine a fossil imprinted in rock: unique, unrepeatable. There may be other similar fossils, larger or smaller, but none will ever be identical. Similarly, a notarized surety bond in blockchain becomes an indelible digital trace, searchable at any time by anyone who has the right to verify its authenticity," Finatti explains.
The benefit is clear: total transparency, no ambiguity and structural protection from fraud. "This technology is already integrated into the processes of banks and insurance companies to ensurethat sureties are always authentic, traceable and secure. Think about what this means for a company or an individual: being able to verify in seconds whether a surety is real, without fear of counterfeiting. With notarization in blockchain, trust is not just a word: it is certified data," Finatti adds.
blockchain can also apply to bank deposits, thanks to tokenization. "Imagine we have a bag of candy. We can sell it whole or we can decide to sell the individual candies, one by one. Which choice would generate more profit? The answer is intuitive: by selling the candies individually. Tokenization works similarly: it is the fractionation of an asset into smaller parts, each of which can be traded or sold separately, generating value. The difference is that, in the world of tokenization, everything is done digitally," Finatti explains.
Translating this concept to bank deposits means that "the money we have in a bank account, if "tokenized," would become a digital representation transferable in real time, without waiting and without going through traditional intermediaries. Going back to candy: it would be like being able to immediately cash in the money from each candy sold, without having to wait for the final count or go through a chain of steps that reduce our earnings," Finatti clarifies.
In Germany, major banks and industries have experimented with just such a model with CBMT - Commercial Bank Money Token - a private banking circuit that simplifies transactions, speeds up time and offers more direct control than traditional transfer and payment circuits. "Imagine if this approach were applied, for example, to the payment of corporate salaries: instant credits, at reduced cost, with full traceability. We are not that far from this scenario," says Finatti.
Another useful example is digital bonds. "Imagine a traditional bond as an official letter: to deliver it and have it recognized requires multiple steps, offices and stamps, with unavoidable time and costs. A digital bond is the same letter, but securely sent and registered and certified on a shared digital network - the blockchain - where every step is tracked and happens in real time," Finatti explains.
Cassa Depositi e Prestiti issued a bond on blockchain last year: 25 million euros, fixed coupon, immediate settlement thanks to a direct link between the blockchain and the Central Bank's payments system through TIPS Hash-Link technology."Drastically reduced time, fewer intermediate steps, greater transparency and the possibility of verifying the existence and validity of the bond at any time," Finatti closes.